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Iranian Member of Parliament: We need nuclear bomb ‘to put Israel in its place’

“Iranian parliament representative Muhammad Nabavian said that Iran needs a nuclear bomb because of Israel,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

“We don’t aspire to obtain a nuclear bomb, but it is necessary so we can put Israel in its place,” Nabavian said in a speech given on Friday and quoted by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute).

“The Iranian Tasnim News Agency website, which first quoted Nabavian, later removed the comment about Iran needing a nuclear bomb, according to the MEMRI report,” the Post reported. “Nabavian also revealed statements made to the Iranian parliament by President Hassan Rouhani, demonstrating that the US administration was pressing hard for a meeting with him.”

“After I won the elections, [US President Barack] Obama relayed a message to me, [even] before [my September 2013] visit to New York. The White House contacted me five times seeking a meeting. Now the question must be asked: Why does this superpower insist on meeting Iran’s president… while calling us a third-world [country]?” said Rouhani.